We know many things delay the subways—track fires, signal problems—but did you realize that our fine-feathered friends can also fowl things up? For instance, yesterday, there were 45 minutes on the N yesterday because of a duck and a hawk.
NYCTSubwayScoop explained all in a series of Tweets: "If you were caught up in a Stillwell Ave-bound #N disruption this afternoon near 8th Ave apologies. We had animals on the roadbed..," "Re #N delay: These was a duck being chased by a hawk on the roadbed. The Train Operator blew his horn to no avail. Delayed service 45 mins," and "Finally the hawk flew away; no one knows what happened to the duck. A #Christmas 'only in NY' subway tale (can't make this stuff up)."
A poster on the NYC Transit Forum opined, "There might have had been some way to prevent the birds from entering the tracks in the first place, but they didn't thought of that did they now," but the know-it-all was quickly shot down by others, "8th avenue is an open cut station. Just how exactly is supposed to prevent them from going on the tracks?"
In July, a Toronto rapid-transit line was delayed 15 minutes because a family of ducklings was on the tracks, "The rail service was stopped as supervisors walked down to the track to usher the ducks along."
